Gas Tax Plan Zips Toward Probable Veto

TALLAHASSEE — A multibillion-dollar transportation plan gained momentum Wednesday as House and Senate committees sent the proposal speeding toward an almost-certain veto by Gov. Bob Martinez.

The Senate Transportation Committee unanimously approved the measure, which includes money to complete the Orlando beltway. The vote came despite grumbling by Republican members who say Martinez won't accept a 4-cent increase in the state gas tax.

''The votes are there to pass the bill, but I think the governor will veto it, without a doubt,'' said Sen. Curt Kiser, R-Palm Harbor.

Earlier Wednesday, the House Appropriations Committee approved its version of the spending plan without debate.

Democratic legislative leaders are in a showdown with the Republican governor over how to solve Florida's transportation financing crisis. Martinez has threatened to veto a gas tax increase. Democrats maintain raising the tax is the only way to solve transportation woes.

Sen. Malcolm Beard, R-Seffner, the committee's chairman, predicted the measure will pass the full Senate but also expects Martinez to veto it. It is doubtful lawmakers could override the veto because it would take a two-thirds vote in both chambers. That will then give legislators another chance to agree on a spending plan acceptable to the governor before the 60-day legislative session ends in June, Beard said.

''It's designed for a veto, but I'm not going to give up hope,'' Beard said. ''I think if we can get over that hump, we can have something for transportation.''

The Senate committee's vote was the crucial test of whether Republican and Democratic lawmakers could agree on a transportation spending plan after failing to reach a consensus four times last year.

A majority of the committee's members are Republicans, but they heeded a request from Senate President Bob Crawford, D-Winter Haven, to pass the bill largely intact. The proposal is based on the work of a special committee Crawford and House Speaker Tom Gustafson, D-Fort Lauderdale, created last year to agree on a transportation financing plan.

Both House and Senate bills are based on raising gas taxes and a several auto fees by $600 million a year and selling about $1.6 billion in bonds to buy land and build toll roads.

The bond plan includes four portions of the Orlando beltway: two sections in Seminole County, the western beltway from Interstate 4 in Seminole south to Osceola County and the Southern Connector in south Orange and Osceola counties.

There are some differences in the House and Senate plans, however.

The Senate committee approved an amendment by Sen. Vince Bruner, D-Fort Walton Beach, that would prevent the state Department of Transportation from spending the new revenue if it failed to meet standards of productivity. The agency came under sharp criticism last year for shoddy management practices that forced it to delay about $700 million worth of road projects.

''I think it's important that we let the citizens of the state know right off the bat that we intend to do everything we can to ensure accountability,'' Bruner said. ''Throwing money at it doesn't guarantee we're going to be more productive.''

The Senate plan also provides about $4.6 million more in fees than the House version based on two amendments that passed Wednesday.

One amendment would repeal a provision in which the state refunds title fees once a car is irreparably wrecked or destroyed. It would raise about $3.7 million a year in additional revenue.

The other amendment, a concession to the rental car industry, would increase the surcharge on rental cars from 50 cents to $2 in exchange for keeping the title fees on rental cars at $3. Under the House plan, the surcharge would be raised to $1.50 while the title fee would go to $24.

Senate members said their version would bring in about $500,000 more than the House proposal.

In another change, the committee approved an amendment by Sen. Tim Deratany, R-Indialantic, removing one of the proposed toll roads from the plan. Deratany said his constituents don't want the $303.8 million Pineda-Orlando Expressway, which would link the Southern Connector in Orange County to Interstate 95 in Brevard County.

''Somebody apparently put this in there thinking I wanted it,'' Deratany said.